Faith builds genuine trust in God. It means truly believing in his promises and acting upon them. When you do this God gives you rest. Resting in him brings great peace. Trusting in God and resting in him transforms your attitude. It squashes doubt and gives you a genuinely positive attitude because you know God can handle this. He loves you and has your best interest at heart.

Too often we focus on the negative and the chaotic. Like the disciples in the storm, we focus on waves and wind and ignore the fact that Jesus resides in the boat with us. I believe faith transforms our attitude and brings a positive outlook in spite of our circumstances.

The writer of Hebrews wrote something that helps us build our faith and remain positive. “…looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2 (ESV)

1.Looking to Jesus brings joy in spite of our circumstances.

When you understand that Jesus considered dying for our sin to be joyous, it empowers us to look beyond our problems to our savior. Was dying on the cross fun? Not in any way, but Jesus looked at the end result and was willing to endure temporary pain in order to facilitate an eternal relationship with us. When we look to Jesus we can have joy in spite of our circumstances because we know what is waiting for us on the other side.

2.Faith causes us to focus on the process rather than the problem.

Jesus constantly works to perfect our faith. The Christian life is a journey with Christ. In every circumstance he builds our lives to become more like him. When we believe that he is building us, then we don’t sink into negativity over the temporary. We can rejoice over the fact that our problems are not meant to hurt us but to grow our faith.

3.You are never alone!

Our battles can make us feel negative and isolated. But we are never alone! Jesus is always with us. When we look to him our fears turn to faith and our worry turns to joy because we remember that he did all of this to bring us closer to him. When we truly believe that we are not alone we find it impossible to remain negative.

4.Hope always looks to the future.

When Jesus rose from the grave he conquered death, sin, the curse, and the devil. He is now seated at the right hand of the Father, meaning that his redemptive work is finished. In the end we win because Jesus already won! In the end all that we face in life will seem so small because we will be with Jesus. He is our one hope. When our hope is in him how can we possibly be negative?

I love The Message paraphrase of Philippians 4:6-7. It reminds us of how putting our hope in Christ affects our attitude. “Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.”

Put Christ, not your problems, at the center of your life and watch how your faith affects your attitude!